Rack for socks



P 26, 1967 M. w. WHEELER 3,343,683

RACK FOR SOCKS Filed July 29, 1965 52 Mary M. Wheeler INVENTOR United States Patent 3,343,683 RACK FOR SOCKS Mary W. Wheeler, 3924 Bay Court Ave., Tampa, Fla. 33611 Filed July 29, 1965, Ser. No. 475,781 2 Claims. (Cl. 21189) This invention relates to a small article rack which is expressly, but not necessarily, constructed and adapted to systematically suspend and store a plurality of pairs of socks and has to do, more particularly, with a rack which while capable of use for display and selling purposes in stores, lends itself for practical use in ones home on a clothes closet door or wall or, alternatively, for installation in a suitcase.

There has long existed a need for means capable of coping with the problem of systematically handling socks which have been washed, ironed and put away for daily choice and wear. Socks are handled in different ways in different homes. However, it is common practice to roll the paired socks together or, alternatively, spread them out in pairs in a garment drawer. In a large family unless the men are careful and the boys obedient, a drawer full of socks in disarray can bring about utter confusion and many and varied consequences not necessary to dwell upon here.

With this generally stated picture as a background it will be seen that the herein disclosed concept has to do, broadly speaking, with getting mixed up socks out of the drawer, out where they can be seen, to hang them up in an orderly manner (in proper pairs) and to enable the user, or users, to select the socks desired for the occasion at hand and save time and serve the mutual desires of all concerned.

Taking into account the many and varied aspects of the over-all problem and a feasible solution it will be evident that it is an objective of the present invention to make available to members of the public for home and other use a simple, practical and economical rack which consists of a minimum number of component parts, utilizes parts which can be made aptly and successfully from various colorful and moldable plastic materials, from wood and any experimentally tried material which can be guaranteed not to harm the socks or to offer perplexing difiiculties in either attaching and hanging the socks in pairs or selecting and detaching them for use when one is in a hurry. a a

In carrying out a preferred embodiment of the invention suitable base means is utilized. While the base means may be of some construction other than that shown it has been found that a wooden or plastic panel, or if desired, two panels one serving as the face panel and the other as the backing panel, may be aptly and effectually employed to provide an adaptation which can be screwed or otherwise mounted on the interior surface of a clothes closet door, on a wall or an equivalent relatively stationary support surface as the case may be.

The invention features a stout wire rod, that is, a rod which is round in crosssection made from stainless steel or equivalent metal and which is of elongated U-shaped form in plan, the bight portion of said rod being parallel to and suitably spaced from the front of the panel and the end portions being laterally directed and terminally bent and firmly anchored in recess means provided therefor in between the abutting panels.

Further novelty is predicated on the use of well-known types of clothespins which constitute and provide the desired hang-up and suspending clips. To the ends desired plastic clothespins are employed; that is, wherein two component parts or units are paired, united and assembled by spring means which, in turn, springs the jaws 3,343,683 Patented Sept. 26, 1967 together, provides the required pivot point and spreads the fingergrips apart and which are commonly referred to in the trade as dual-jaw spring-biased clips.

The invention also features the adoption and use of the aforementioned clothespin-type suspension clips which are prepared to serve the purposes herein required by simply providing the normally spring-biased divergent fingergrips with holes which are sufliciently large relative to the cross-section of the wire rod that they can be lined up (FIG. 6) to permit free sliding of a selected clip.

These together with other objects and advantages which will become subsequently apparent reside in the details of construction and operation as more fully hereinafter described and claimed, reference being had to the accompanying drawings forming a part hereof, wherein like numerals refer to like parts throughout, and in which:

FIG. 1 is a view in front elevation of a rack for socks, neckties or the like constructed i1 accordance with the principles of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a top plan view of the same;

FIG. 3 is a view in end elevation which may be based on either FIGS. 1 or 2, looking either from right or left as the case may be;

FIG. 4 is a section on an enlarged scale with parts appearing in elevation but taken on the plane of the section line 4-4 of FIG. 1;

FIG. 5 is a view taken on the plane of the section line 5-5 of FIG. 1; and

FIG. 6 is a fragmentary view with parts in section and elevation which ties in and is based on FIG. 4 and shows I the manner in which the fingergrips are constructed and function.

Referring now to the views of the drawing it will be seen that the base means is denoted, generally speaking, by the numeral 8. While it would be within the purview of the invention to use a single ply or thickness of wood or a onepiece plastic block or panel (as the case may be) it has been found that two plies or laminations are preferred, as shown in FIGS. 4 and 5. The thicker outer panel is of elongated or rectangular form and is denoted by the numeral 10 and constitutes the face or front panel. The backing panel, which is thinner, is denoted by the numeral 12. Recess means is provided at the respective ends (FIG. 4) and median portion (FIG. 5) between the panels and is generally L-shaped in form. For example, as shown in FIG. 4, the recess means, characterized by component portions 13 and 14, serves in a manner to be later set forth. The corresponding components of the recess means at the median part of the over-all base means 8 are designated at 16 and 18 (in FIG. 5). The means for racking the supporting or hanger clips 20 on the face of the base means is preferably of the construction shown; namely, comprises an elongated U-shaped stout wire rod which is denoted, as an entity, by the numeral 22. More specifically, this rod comprises a linearly straight bight portion 24 and lateral end portions 26 which are disposed at right angles to the panels 10 and 12and have terminal bent ends 28 suitably anchored in the recesses 13 and 14 as shown in FIG. 4. When the rod is relatively long as shown, it is optionally desirable to employ one or more rigidifying braces, for example, the type of brace which is denoted at 30 in FIG. 5 and comprises a length of stout wire stock bent upon itself to form an eye 32 embracing the rod and which has upper and lower limb portions 34 and 36 with the upper limb having a lateral bend 38 (FIG. 5) anchored in the recess means 16 and 18 and with the lower limb having a substantially straight terminal end portion 48 fitting into an anchoring socket or hole 50 provided therefor in the front panel 10.

The clips or pins are the same throughout and any number of clips or pins will be provided depending on the general requirements of a given user. The clothespin is conventional in construction in that it comprises a pair of substantially duplicate companion parts '52 and 54 which have lower ends providing jaws 56 and have their median portions joined by a pivoting, assembling and uniting spring 58. This is the type of a spring which not only hingedly joins the parts but acts on and yieldingly spreads the upper fingergrips 60 into normal divergent relationship. In carrying out the present invention the respective finger grips are provided with straight alignable round holes 62 which are a little larger than the crosssection of the round rod 24 on which they are adjustably and slidingly mounted.

When assembling this rack, thread the holes 62 onto the rod 22. The holes 62 are just large enough (FIG. 6) to slide easily from left to right on the rod 22. The rod 22 has sharp corners at each bend. The clothespins 2%) will not go around the bends unless they are pinched together at the top. Once around the bends, the tops of the clothespins are released and will not slip back around the bend. (This eliminates the use of an extra part to stop them from sliding around the bend.)

The size of the hole is important, just big enough to slide around the bend when pinched together at the top of clothespin 20. If the hole 62 were too large it would just slide around the bend. Therefore, each hole 62 must be just a little larger than the rod 22 so that one can slide the clothespins 20 easily left or right, without them sliding back around the bends at the end of the rod 22.

It will be evident that with the construction shown and described the hanger clips for the pairs of socks are well known types of clothespins except that the end or grip portions 60 as shown in FIGS. 4 and 6 have suitably enlarged openings 62 therein.

It will be evident that with the construction shown and described a feasible and acceptable hanger rack has been evolved and produced, one which enables the user to hang the socks up on the closet door near the ties and shirts so that with the shirts there and also the ties, perhaps on a rack too, all of the garmets for a given day are in readiness for quick selection and use.

In actual practice the end portions of the panel means will be provided with screws or other suitable fastenings as shown at 64. On the other hand it will be understood that a rack of this type could be adhesively applied to a wall or door surface and thus satisfactorily supported. In the case of using this sock assembling and hang-up means for display purposes for example, in a store, the base means may be of a suitable construction other than shown in order to accommodate the rod means and the openable and closable spring loaded clips.

It will be evident that with the construction shown and arranged one can select a color on sight as the socks are hung up from the tips of the toes (each clip holding a single pair of socks) and the owner can see all the socks at a glance, the heels of the socks hanging toward or facing the panel means.

It is submitted that a careful consideration of the specification in conjunction with the views of the drawing will enable the reader to obtain a clear and comprehensive understanding of the subject matter of the invention, the features and advantages and the manner of use. Accordingly, a more extended description is regarded as unnecessary.

The foregoing is considered as illustrative only of the principles of the invention. Further, since numerous modifications and changes will readily occur to those skilled in the art, it is not desired to limit the invention to the exact construction and operation shown and described and accordingly all suitable modifications and equivalents may be resorted to, falling within the scope of the invention as claimed.

What is claimed as new is as follows:

1. A rack for systematically storing, displaying and detachably suspending a plurality of pairs of socks, neckties or similar small articles of apparel for readily viewable selective use comprising, in combination, an elongated fiat-faced base panel capable of being superimposed and accessibly mounted on a clothes closet door, wall or similar stationary support surface, a hanger embodying a stout rigid wire rod U-shaped in plan and having lateral end portions disposed at right angles to, aflixed to and projecting laterally forwardly from a front face of said base panel and a linearly straight bight portion parallel to and spaced from said base panel, said rod being round in cross-section and providing a support, and a plurality of independent selectively usable clothespins having the capability of detachably clipping and suspending individual pairs of socks, each clothespin comprising a pair of like elongated'component parts provided at lower ends thereof with opposed normally closed gripping jaws, at upper ends with opposed normally spread fingergrips and having opposed median portions abutting each other faceto-face and hingedly joined together by coiled spring means acting on and spreading said fingergrips apart and said jaws together, said fingergrips having substantially round holes aligned with each other, a coacting portion of said bight portion passing through said holes, said holes being of a diameter greater than the cross-section of said bight portion in a manner to permit said clothespins to be bodily and shiftably slid along a cooperating median portion at will and to allow the fingergrips to be squeezed toward each other without hindrance and, in so doing, to spread said jaws to open positions, said holes being large enough to slide freely on the bight portion of said wire rod but not big enough to slide around the bent portions at the juncture of the bight and lateral end portions unless the fingergrips are intentionally squeezed together.

2. The rack according to claim 1 and wherein said base panel comprises an outer panel and a complemental backing panel, adjacent cooperating surfaces of said panels being provided with recess means generally L-shaped in form, said lateral end portions having laterally bent terminal ends conformingly and retentively fitted in their respective recess means.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,363,592 12/1920 Hermanson 24--137 1,480,065 1/1924 Hart et al 21189 2,459,853 1/ 1949 Swetuam 211--89 X 2,707,052 4/1955 Brown 21189 X 3,211,293 1 0/1965 Tarnoff 248-223 X ROY D. FRAZIER, Primary Examiner.

CLAUDE A. LE ROY, Examiner R. P. SEITIER, Assistant Examiner, 

1. A RACK FOR SYSTEMATICALLY STORING, DISPLAYING AND DETACHABLY SUSPENDING A PLURALITY OF PAIRS OF SOCKS, NECKTIES OR SIMILAR SMALL ARTICLES OF APPAREL FOR READILY VIEWABLE SELECTIVE USE COMPRISING, IN COMBINATION, AN ELONGATED FLAT-FACED BASE PANEL CAPABLE OF BEING SUPERIMPOSED AND ACCESSIBLY MOUNTED ON A CLOTHES CLOSET DOOR, WALL OR SIMILAR STATIONARY SUPPORT SURFACE, A HANGER EMBODYING A STOUT RIGID WIRE ROD U-SHAPED IN PLAN AND HAVIG LATERAL END PORTIONS DISPOSED AT RIGHT ANGLES TO, AFFIXED TO AND PROJECTING LATERALLY FORWARDLY FROM A FRONT FACE OF SAID BASE PANEL AND LINEARLY STRAIGHT BIGHT PORTION PARALLEL TO AND SPACED FROM SAID BASE PANEL, SID ROD BEING ROUND IN CROSS-SECTION AND PROVIDING A SUPPORT, AND A PLURALITY OF INDEPENDENT SELECTIVELY USABLE CLOTHESPINS HAVING THE CAPABILITY OF DETCHABLY CLIPPING AND SUSPENDING INDIVIDUAL PAIRS OF SOCKS, EACH CLOTHESPIN COMPRISING A PAIR OF LIKE ELONGATED COMPONENT PARTS PROVIDED AT LOWER ENDS THEREOF WITH OPPOSED NORMALLY CLOSED GRIPPING JAWS, AT UPPER ENDS WITH OPPOSED NORMALLY SPREAD FINGERGRIPS AND HAVING OPPOSED MEDIAN PORTIONS ABUTTING EACH OTHER FACETO-FACE AND HINGEDLY JOINED TOGETHER BY COILED SPRING MEANS ACTING ON AND SPREADING SAID FINGERGRIPS APART AND SAID JAWS TOGETHER, SAID FINGERTIPS HAVING SUBSTANTIALLY ROUND HOLES ALIGNED WITH EACH OTHER, A COACTING PORTION OF SID BIGHT PORTION PASSING THROUGH SAID HOLES, SAID HOLES BEING OF A DIAMETER GREATER THAN THE CROSS-SECTION OF SAID BIGHT PORTION IN A MANNER TO PERMIT SAID CLOTHESPINS TO BE BODILY AND SHIFTABLY SLID ALONG A COOPERATING MEDIAN PORTION AT WILL AND TO ALLOW THE FINGERGRIPS TO BE SQUEEZED TOWARD EACH OTHER WITHOUT HINDRANCE AND, IN SO DOING, TO SPREAD SAID JAWS TO OPEN POSITIONS, SAID HOLES BEING LARGE ENOUGH TO SLIDE FREELY ON THE BIGHT PORTION OF SID WIRE ROD BUT NOT BIG ENOUGH TO SLIDE AROUND THE BENT PORTIONS AT THE JUNCTURE OF THE BIGHT AND LATERAL END PORTIONS UNLESS THE FINGERGRIP ARE INTENTIONALLY SQUEEZED TOGETHER. 